Leslie Morse and Kingston just keep getting stronger.

Almost three months after their seventh-placed finish at the Offield Farms FEI World Cup Final (Nev.), the pair returned to dominate the Grand Prix classes at the Pebble Beach CDI in Pebble Beach, Calif., July 7-10.

After the World Cup, Morse gave Kingston some time off. “I mostly just trail rode him to keep him fit but gave his mind a break. I don’t want him to peak until Aachen [(Germany) Aug. 23-28], and I think for the longevity of his career it’s really important that we give him time to come down.”

The only problem with a break for the 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood stallion is that it tends to leave him feeling more than a little fresh when he returns to the show ring.

“When he got there he was full of himself and really strong,” admitted Morse, of Malibu, Calif. “He was feeling great in his body, but he was twice as strong as he was at the World Cup and it was a little hard to keep his attention. I decided to go in a couple of open classes to get a little practice under our belts.”

They easily won the open Grand Prix Special (71.80%). But it was the CDI classes that counted, and Kingston didn’t disappoint. He won the Grand Prix (71.62%) and the freestyle (78.18%).

“Kingston put in a really good Grand Prix,” said Morse. “And he was fabulous in the freestyle. He showed a lot more strength in the movement.”

But his increasing strength caused a small problem. “His movement has gotten so much bigger and stronger that I have to have the music re-cut,” said Morse. “We’re ahead of the music. He’s eating up the ring with his length of stride.”

Currently Kingston dances to music from the movie Pirates Of The Caribbean, but Morse isn’t letting on exactly what she plans to do for the future.

“It’s a surprise,” she said gleefully. “I’m going to make some changes in my music. He’s really grown up and is showing a different caliber of work, so I want to show that off even more.”

Tip Top 962 finished right behind his impressive barn mate, placing second in the Grand Prix (69.04%) and winning the Grand Prix Special (71.08%) in the CDI.

Morse rode the 11-year-old Swedish Warmblood stallion before Kingston in the Grand Prix test. “It’s a pretty spooky environment, optically testing for the horses, a lot of flags,” said Morse. “Tip Top got frightened of the photographers and my test was a little bit marred by that. He got spooked before he even went in the ring. He gets nervous and he withdraws, totally the opposite of Kingston.

“But he was very good under the circumstances,” she continued. “This happened one other time in Florida, and there he was stopping in the middle of the arena, picking his head up and looking. So I think we’ve improved since then because now when he gets nervous, he keeps going around the ring and does everything well enough for a 69 percent.”

But in dressage there’s almost always another test. “The Special that I had on Tip Top was the best test I’ve had in my life,” enthused Morse. “I was so proud of him to come back the next day and be right on my aids. He really showed a solid performance. We had a little bit big second canter pirouette and one short change in the one-tempis, so considering those two errors, I think the score that I got was sensational. They were just little bobbles.”

Morse plans to compete in the Aachen CHIO with both stallions. She’ll compete in one CDI in Germany before heading to Aachen, and Kingston will compete on the Nations Cup team for the United States.

High Performance Debut

The impending trip to Germany meant that CDI attendance was down, as other top Californians prepared for the trip abroad. But that made room for some newcomers to the high performance scene, like Carolyn Adams and Winterprinz who won the Prix St. Georges (69.40%) and Intermediaire classes (70.30%).

“I feel like I’ll wake up and find out it was only a dream,” gushed Adams about her high scores. Though Winterprinz was the leading horse in the U.S. Dressage Federation 2004 Horse of the Year standings at Prix St. Georges, Pebble Beach was only Adams’ second CDI with him.

“I had three lessons with Dirk Glitz and he encouraged me to do the high performance thing,” explained Adams. “He told me I had a really good horse. When you have somebody of that caliber that believes in you it’s really refreshing.”

Adams, of Pleasanton, Calif., also credits Tracey Lert and Steffen Peters with giving her the confidence and training to continue moving Winterprinz up.

One thing that makes victory that much sweeter is that Adams has owned and ridden the 11-year-old Hanoverian since he was 3. “I didn’t send him off to be trained, so it’s a really super sense of accomplishment,” said Adams.

She and her mother, Marjorie Koller, found Winterprinz in Germany. “I wanted him to be 7 and in training,” said Adams with a laugh. She left him there to do his 100-day testing before importing him.

“He was pretty hot when I first got him,” said Adams. “My heart used to pound when I rode him! He didn’t have any ground manners. I had to teach him not to walk off when you took the halter off to put the bridle on.”

But despite the initial difficulties Adams found Winterprinz easy to train. “The whole time that I’ve owned him he’s only bucked three times and that’s when he was younger,” she said.

Adams’ husband Patrick collects the stallion three times a week, but his busy breeding schedule doesn’t interfere with riding. “I’ve had many stallions, and I like them,” said Adams.

Adams originally hoped to qualify for the U.S. Equestrian Federation National Intermediaire Championships, but she ended up 13th in the standings, just one place out. So she’s hoping her scores from Pebble Beach and her next CDI, at Woodside (Calif.), will help her get qualified for next year.

“He was really with me at Pebble Beach, listening,” she said. “When I asked for an extension he was there, and when I asked him to come back, I just had to close my thighs for a second and he would come right back. He wasn’t worried about anything, it was just him and me.”

Big Dreams

Adams wasn’t the only one working toward the Intermediaire Championships. Tanya Vik, who placed second in every class in the CDI small tour with Divinity 3, is also hoping to qualify.

It was the first CDI for the 37-year-old professional from San Rafael, Calif., and her 9-year-old, Hanoverian gelding. “I have a lot of goals and ambitions as a rider,” she said. “It’s been exciting to move on to the CDI. You do really well at your normal shows, and then you’re in a CDI and you have to start down and scrabble your way up.”

Vik bought “Vinnie” from a client in 2002 and trained him from second level to their debut at Intermediaire this year. “He’s a great little horse,” said Vik. “He’s not super talented in terms of fancy movement, but he has the best mind and the best work ethic a horse could possibly come with. He works and tries and works some more, so I feel very lucky.”

Of her three rides, Vik was most pleased with the Intermediaire I. “He was a little bit tense in the Prix St. Georges and bucked through one of the medium canters,” she said. “Pebble Beach is cold and windy and so it’s a little bit much for them. They tend to get wound up. For the Intermediaire I he was really good. He was super concentrated, focused and he didn’t care about everybody else and what was going on.”

The music for her freestyle is a medley of surfing songs–the trot work is to “Wipeout.” “It fits him,” said Vik. “He’s a little horse and the music’s fun with him.”

Though she’s been using this appropriate California music for some time, the choreography doesn’t always go smoothly. “It was not my best test,” said Vik. “I always end up doing the music last minute, and it didn’t go off all that well. I’ve since fixed the music a bit and hope to do a much better job.”

She Hasn’t Got Time To Be Stressed

Nancy Szakacs starts her day at 4:30 each morning to care for her herd of five horses before boarding the train that will take her two hours away to her job at a bio-pharmaceutical company in Sunnyvale, Calif.

But that doesn’t stop her from being serious about her dressage, and this adult amateur has found the time, often riding in the dark after she gets home in the evening, to earn her bronze, silver and gold U.S. Dressage Federation medals.

“A lot of people spend time and money going to see a psychiatrist or working out at gyms,” said Szakacs. “I don’t need that! Riding is a nice distraction from my work. I can to-tally let down and enter a completely different world, which is very relaxing and gratifying.”

She rode her 5-year-old Ruschkoi to the top percentage score of the Pebble Beach open show, winning a training level, test 3, class with a score of 78.33 percent. Szakacs won an impressive six of seven classes with “Ralli.”

“He’s so honest and positive about everything he does,” said Szakacs. “He has the ability to focus really easily, and he has three really good gaits. He’s so easily able to put everything together into a nice frame. It makes the whole thing so much fun.”

Szakacs first saw the Rheinlander gelding while he was still in Germany but didn’t ride him until he arrived at the Villa Rosa farm in Hollister, Calif., where she lives.

“I didn’t need another horse,” she said guiltily. “But I got him nevertheless. I really liked him.”

Szakacs works with Pam Nelson and Heidi Gaian at Villa Rosa and credits them with helping her move through the levels. “I had gone through training, first, second level but nothing beyond that,” she said. “They opened up my world as far as what possibilities could happen.”

She also rode in the CDI with Normann, a 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood. It was her first experience at that level with him, and while her scores weren’t fantastic–she placed last in the small tour classes–she was still positive.

“The experience was invaluable,” said Szakacs. “I was quite pleased with what he had done, but he can do better. It was a combination of things including nerves. It’s all a learning experience.”